The invention relates to an ejection mechanism adapted for use in a built-in or externally connected housing chamber of an electronic device for ejecting a modular electronic element from the housing chamber.
Electronic devices can help people to process and store a large amount of electronic data and have become indispensable products in people""s life. With continuous technological development, the functions and speed of electronic products also are improved constantly. Most electronic products have evolved from bulky sizes in the past to slim and light now.
In order to meet storage requirements, a wide variety of disk drives have been developed, such as floppy disk drives, optical disk drives, and the like. Disk drives are the most widely used devices and many different models have been developed. When in use, a specific housing chamber must be provided to hold the disk drive (either built-in or externally connected to the electronic device). As there are different types and sizes of disk drives, it is difficult to house these disk drives in the housing chamber of the electronic device, causing great inconvenience. To resolve this problem, a modular electronic element has been developed. It can be a floppy disk drive or an optical drive, and can be loaded into a housing chamber of electronic devices. The housing chamber usually has an ejection mechanism to eject one modular electronic element to place another one in the housing chamber. For instance, notebook computers generally adopt external disk drives in order to become more slim and light. There are two types of external disk drive. One is directly built in a housing chamber in a notebook computer. The other is in an external box that holds the disk drive separately.
Conventional ejection mechanisms adapted for electronic devices generally include a push rod located on a rear end of the electronic element for removing the electronic element from the connection slot. In order to enable the externally connected electronic element to maintain proper electric connection with the connection slot of the electronic device, the electronic element, in addition to the push rod, usually has a latch element to secure the connection with the connection slot to prevent the electronic element from ejecting accidentally when subject to an external force. The push rod and the latch element are separately designed. When ejecting the electronic element, the latch element must be released first, then the push rod is moved to eject the electronic element. Such a design is not convenient to use.
The primary object of the invention is to provide an ejection mechanism for modular electronic elements that can easily remove an electronic element from a housing chamber of an electronic device by actuating only one element.
The ejection mechanism according to the invention may be adopted to a built-in or external connecting housing chamber of an electronic device. The mechanism includes a latch member, a first rod member and a second rod member. The latch member is movably located on a lateral side of the housing chamber and has a first wedge surface that has a pointed edge adjacent to the lateral side of the housing chamber, and a latch lug engageable with the electronic element. There is an elastic element located between the latch member and the lateral side of the housing chamber. The first rod member has one lateral side facing the electronic element, and is pivotally engaged with the housing chamber and the second rod member. The second rod member has an ejection member and a second wedge surface corresponding to the first wedge surface. When moving towards the opening of the housing chamber for ejection, the second rod member drives the first rod member to eject the modular electronic element, the second wedge surface pushes the first wedge surface, the latch member is moved to compress the elastic element, and the latch member is released from the modular electronic element.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are only to serve for reference and illustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.